Dreamers heckle Clinton in Maryland

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Hillary Clinton was heckled repeatedly during a rally Thursday in potential 2016 rival Martin O’Malley’s home state of Maryland, when more than a dozen pro-immigrant activists staggered their protests so they lasted throughout most of her speech.

The rolling protests by members of the group United We Dream came during a rally at the University of Maryland for Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown. They also came nearly a week after so-called Dreamers interrupted Clinton’s speech in North Carolina, where she was campaigning for Sen. Kay Hagan; the activists reportedly said they were mishandled by officials at that rally when they were being led out.

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Clinton, who has said she will decide on a White House run by early next year, has repeatedly been targeted by Dreamers since she re-emerged in politics as a campaign surrogate this fall. The activists are frustrated with President Barack Obama’s delay in taking executive action on immigration reforms, and they are pushing Clinton to be more outspoken on the issue.

Hispanics are a fast-growing voting bloc, and the Dreamers want to send a signal that Democrats shouldn’t take their support for granted, despite congressional Republicans’ blocking of comprehensive immigration reform in the House.

The protesters on Thursday fanned out around the gymnasium where the rally was held, popping up every few minutes with a new round of heckles.

“Immigration is an important issue in this state,” Clinton said, as the first wave of protesters — a cluster of six people hoisting signs that read, “Choose Families Over Politics” — shouted and drowned her out. They were led out of the gymnasium by officers.

“If they’d just waited a little while I was getting to the DREAM Act,” Clinton said, to some laughs from the crowd. She went on to praise the legislation, which passed at the ballot box in Maryland in 2012. The act was championed by O’Malley, Maryland’s governor, and it allows some undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates for college.

A few minutes later, in a bleachers section of the gymnasium, an activist started shouting Clinton down.

“I’m a strong supporter of comprehensive immigration reform,” said Clinton, who also called it a “moral” issue. “We have to treat everyone with dignity and compassion.” That shouting activist also was led out of the gym by officers, still protesting loudly as she left.

Clinton again started talking, and then a third, smaller wave began. Toward the end of her speech there was a fourth, and then a fifth.

“I think she avoided the question like she has in the other events where we’ve tried to connect with her before,” said Greisa Martinez, an organizer with United We Dream who said she drew more than two dozen people to the event.

“I know that Hillary Clinton is a very intelligent woman and she knows exactly what we are talking about… it’s not about the DREAM Act and it’s not about immigration reform…it’s about administrative relief, and so to hear her use that as a cop out to” avoid answering was frustrating, she said.

Clinton never seemed rattled by the protesters, although the rolling wave had a jarring effect on the speech. The episode underscored not just that she will continue to face protests until the White House moves on this issue, potentially after Election Day next week, but also how O’Malley has become a voice on the issue in recent months.

With social issues like gay marriage now considered settled within the Democratic Party, the issue of immigration reform and its many components remains a space for people in the party to carve out on the left. It’s an issue that bedeviled Clinton in the 2008 campaign, when, during a Democratic debate in late 2007, she fumbled a question about whether she supported then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plan to give undocumented immigrants drivers’ licenses.